Grant aims to help UNH extinguish cigarettes

Tuesday

Dec 2, 2014 at 3:15 AM

By Morgan Palmermpalmer@fosters.com

DURHAM — University of New Hampshire Health Services staffers hope that a $180,000 grant from the State of New Hampshire Tobacco Prevention and Control Program will help users on campus kick the tobacco habit.

The two-year grant was awarded the University System of New Hampshire (USNH), and the Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH). The systems include the University of New Hampshire; Plymouth State University; Keene State College; Granite State College; Great Bay, Lakes Region, Manchester, Nashua, River Valley and White Mountains Community Colleges and the New Hampshire Technical Institute.

UNH already has an ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs) program, but UNH Health Services educator and counselor Melissa Garvey hopes this grant will help further reduce tobacco use on campus.

Garvey said the National College Health Assessment in 2013 reported that the national average of tobacco use on college campuses is 14.4 percent. She said, “We’re considerably higher than that (at UNH). We’ve measured about 8 percent using chewing tobacco and 23 percent using cigarettes. That’s concerning. We’re trying to work on bringing those rates down.”

Each institution named in the grant will use its allocation to develop a voluntary tobacco-free policy, said Amy Schwartz, an assistant clinical professor and director of health care cost containment for USNH.

“We intend to review our current policies on campus tobacco use, research best practices for other systems who have gone tobacco-free and work with our individual campuses to determine how to best move toward a smoke-free college campus environment,” she said.

“We are also going to consider research to determine how to best encourage our staff and students who smoke to quit,” Schwartz said.

She said this grant is important to USNH and CCSNH because tobacco use costs the University and Community College Systems money, affects the health and future of its students, faculty and staff and compromises the beauty of the building and grounds.

“The grant will be used by a coalition of the campuses’ health and wellness committees,” UNH spokeswoman Erika Mantz said. “They will determine how to spend the $180,000 over two years with the goal of creating tobacco-free environments on all of the affiliated campuses.

“The money can be used for a variety of things, to include accessing the expertise needed to develop policies, increasing cessation programs and implementing social media,” said Mantz.

Dr. Todd Leach, Chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, said, “This collaboration is important to the health and well-being of our students, faculty and staff. This type of grant can be of critical importance in helping advance our wellness efforts across our institutions, as well as for the state.”

Although Garvey said UNH does have policies in place that prohibit smoking within 20 feet of buildings, she said there have been discussions on campus about stricter policies to better protect students against secondhand smoke.

“There is interest in the tobacco-free campus movement,” she said. “We’ve been assessing our readiness for change. I do know that many other campuses that are much larger than us have managed to go tobacco free.”

The timing of the grant is ideal, Garvey said, as winter is a common time for smokers to neglect no-smoking policies.

“As the weather gets colder, everybody encroaches on (the 20 foot rule),” she said. “We’re here to remind (smokers) we don’t want people to be exposed to secondhand smoke.”

Garvey believes the grant money could help UNH bolster current anti-tobacco initiatives.

“I do one-on-one counseling, and I do group presentations,” she said. “We’ve always provided tobacco prevention programs ... at fraternities, sororities or dorms. The best approach is really one-on-one counseling. That has the greatest success.

“Most people (who smoke) — about 99 percent — start smoking before the age of 25. So, the age group from 18 to 24 is critical for behavior change and to work toward better health.”